FEATURE
BUOYS
Buoys: Fishermen’s hand-made tools as art Photographer and story by Arthur Drooker
s a photographer I pride myself on making the ordinary look extraordinary. To see a common object anew is to photograph it in a way that it has never been seen before. Such was the case when I saw the unexpected yet undeniable beauty of buoys.Yes, buoys. I should state at the outset that I’m not a fisherman. To be honest, my idea of fishing is going to the seafood department of my neighborhood supermarket and buying filets of whatever looks good for dinner that night. Yet, like a fisherman, I venture forth at all hours not knowing what I will find and when I return with a pleasing photo, I often call it the “catch of the day.”
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20 National Fisherman \ Summer 2022
Moreover, and more important, fishing requires skill and patience, and so does photography. And let’s not forget luck. The kind of luck I felt last fall when I visited Point Arena pier on the Northern California coast. Normally, I would have no business being there but the occasion — giving my son-in-law’s family, which includes avid fishermen, a tour of the area — just happened to take place when the setting sun bathed buoys on the pier in golden light, saturating their colors and accentuating their textures. I take moments like this as a sign. It’s as if the sun deliberately focused its last rays, like a pointer, on the buoys, saying, “Look at this!” I did. And began photographing. www.nationalfisherman.com
